Originally published by AFP,02 July 2010

WASHINGTON — The United States on Friday urged China to show transparency and respect legal rights of its citizens one year after deadly ethnic violence erupted in the Xinjiang region’s capital Urumqi.

“We continue to urge China to handle all detentions and judicial processes relating to last year’s violence in Urumqi in a transparent manner,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner told AFP.

“We have urged China to ensure that the legal rights of all Chinese citizens are respected in accordance with international standards of due process,” he said.

Toner said that the United States has discussed its concerns “repeatedly” to China via its embassy in Beijing.

Urumqi erupted in violence on July 5, 2009 pitting the region’s mostly Muslim Uighur community against members of China’s majority Han ethnicity.

The government says nearly 200 people were killed and about 1,700 injured in the unrest, China’s worst ethnic violence in decades, with Han making up most of the victims.

Uighur activists say thousands of people remain unaccounted for after mass raids by Chinese authorities to round up suspected sympathizers.